Sunday School: History Lesson 37

Clay Dalrymple was a catcher with the Phillies from 1960-1968. Never a huge offensive threat, Dalrymple's defensive skills kept him behind the plate as the Phillies' everyday catcher. It was well known that his signal calling abilities and strong throwing arm were Dalrymple's strengths and made up for any shortcomings at bat.

Dalrymple was part of the well-known 1964 Phillies team that is infamous for their collapse down the stretch. That season, the Phillies blew a 6 1/2 game lead with 15 games left to play.

Dalrymple's best offensive season came in 1962 when he hit 11 homers, drove in 54 runs with a .276 avg. and an .809 OPS. Over the next 3 seasons, Dalrymple's batting average would drop, plumeting to .213 in 1965. Dalrymple's sliding production with the bat became a source of frustration for many Phillies phans.

In 1966, Clay's batting average bounced back up to .245 and he had a streak of 99 straight games without an error, but his .172 batting average in 1967 was the beginning of the end of his starting gig in Philadelphia.

Dalrymple caught only 80 games the following season and was traded in the 1968-1969 offseason to Baltimore, where he would play in a reserve role, catching just 73 games in 3 season with the Orioles.

-----------------------------------

Follow PhoulBallz.com on Twitter HERE!

Comments

PhoulBallz Q&A with Mike Stutes

Mike Stutes completes "The Reading Phils Mike Tri-fecta" over three days, here on PhoulBallz.com. Stutes, a 22 year old, was an 11th round selection by the Phillies in the 2008 amateur draft. Stutes, a right handed starting pitcher, helped lead Oregon State to the College World Series championship in both 2006 and 2007. Stutes and teammate Vance Worley are the first players to begin a season at Reading the year after being drafted since Pat Burrell did it in 1999. Stutes was the Phils' minor league pitcher of the month in August '08, when he went 4-1 with a 1.72 ERA in 6 starts. Check out my Q&A with the third Mike below. Can I get you to talk about the coaching staff and how they help you deal with ups and downs? They've been real positive with me. I started out good and then I hit a rough patch. They've stuck with me through it all. I haven't heard any negative words from them. Every day they try to come out, work with me, try to get me turned around...

Jason Knapp Q&A

PhoulBallz .com was fortunate enough to meet with Phillies prospect Jason Knapp just one day after he caught the attention of the baseball world with his 7 shut out innings, 14 strike out performance against the Indians' Lake County team. - I asked Jason, the Lakewood BlueClaw , for some thoughts about his big game... I had pretty good command of three pitches (fastball, curve, change up). I was on the same page with my catcher, D'Arnaud , and I ended up, ya know, I felt pretty good. - In a great performance like that, how much credit goes to Travis D'Arnaud , the catcher? More than you might expect, definitely. I didn't shake him off once. He told me what to throw and I do what I'm told. And if it works out, a lot of the credit goes to the catcher. - Does the lack of run support (Lakewood has scored 3 total runs in his 3 starts), in your few starts, increase your stress level, or enhance your focus? No, I just try to go out and do my job every outing. Ya know, we...

Yankees Fans Misled By Pepsi Promotion

**** Today, New York Yankees fans attended a Pepsi promotion in Times Square hoping for chances to win opening day tickets to the new stadium, but the tickets, which were difficult to track down due to poor organization on Pepsi's part, were actually for a game in June. Furthermore, the 250 pairs that were promised were actually only 100 pairs. The fans, who were made to sprint through traffic over multiple city blocks when locations for the promotion changed, quickly turned against the soda brand by pooring out their beverages and chanting anti-Pepsi phrases. Yankees fans are even threatening a boycott of Pepsi. An appearance by Yankee great Goose Gossage could not even settle the angry mob, as he had to be whisked away, as a precaution, according to the Daily News . Ooo , I'd hate to see what "the worst fans in sports" (Philadelphia fans) would have done to their free Pepsi cans and beloved reliever in that situation. Because this happened in a non-Philly city, th...

PhoulBallz.com

Search This Blog